Test company Accuver this week officially launched commercial 5G field testing tools for Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G smartphones.
The Galaxy S10 5G handset models are some of the first 5G smartphones available globally, which makes them an important tool for testing networks as early deployments continue to ramp up. Accuver has been one of the companies providing 5G field testing solutions to operators for the very earliest 5G deployments, from a 5G Technical Forum field-testing offering to a Tier One service provider in the U.S. — which could only be Verizon — to 5G New Radio field testing solutions for Korean operators, including for the 5G pilot network deployed by Korea Telecom for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Accuver said that both the drive-testing and walk-testing toolsets support testing with Galaxy S10 5G smartphones with Qualcomm’s X50 chipset or with Samsung’s Exynos chipset (which is being used in Galaxy S10 5G devices in Korea), for 3GPP Release 15 specifications from June, September and December 2018. The dual-chipset interface for LTE and 5G enables users to see key performance indicators and messages from both technologies simultaneously — an important piece when LTE is typically acting as an anchor for 5G New Radio in Nonstandalone 5G networks, which are the most common early deployment type. Supported network scanners for sub-6 GHz (also known as Frequency Range 1 or FR1) and millimeter wave bands (FR2) include PCTel’s IBflex and HBflex and Rohde & Schwarz’s TSMe6 and TSMA6.
Accuver said that the tools also support beamforming measurement analysis. Detailed analysis software is also a specialty of Accuver’s, and its XCAP-M software supports the in-depth look at the data collected with the S10 5G device. Accuver said that the tool provides correlation analysis between 4G and 5G by synchronizing time, and gives a comprehensive view of 5G network and/or device performance that includes KPIs such as serving cell beam management and other beamforming KPIs as well as a laundry list of others.
“This product launch reinforces Accuver’s commitment to be the first to reach new frontiers of wireless performance, innovation, value and trust,” said Jinman Kim, VP of sales for advanced products for Accuver Americas, in a statement. “We strive to give our customers the tools they need to test and optimize 5G NSA network in FR1 (sub-6 GHz) and FR2 (mmWave) frequency bands using the latest device in the market.”
